


You and I

by sprouseheart



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Addiction, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Lady Gaga's "You and I" AU, Serpent!Jughead, Sex, Singer!Betty, alternative universe, beware: anxiety, bughead - Freeform, inspired by every Lady Gaga song, joanne!betty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 10:33:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15638967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprouseheart/pseuds/sprouseheart
Summary: From the moment he saw her he knew she was going to be a star. And she became one, took the world in her hands and left behind that stage in the Whyte Wyrm. Jughead got used to her absence, until the she sent him that song, two years after she left.“It's been a long time since I came aroundBeen a long time but I'm back in townAnd this time I'm not leaving without you”





	1. Prologue

It was a Thursday night when she decided to come back to my life.  
I had just arrived at the Whyte Wyrm with Sweet Pea, the crowd was relatively calm and Toni was able to serve everyone without any problems. I approached her and, catching my gaze, she promptly took the whiskey bottle and slid towards me. I took a sip from the bottleneck and let out a relieved sigh. I wasn’t proud to follow my father's addictions, including drinking, but since she left it seemed to be the only way to keep me sane.  
"I suppose the delivery was not the best." Toni said, a faint smile on her lips. I nodded, leaning against the counter and running my fingers through my hair.  
“It’s getting worse.” I mumbled, looking around the bar, unhappy to find few familiar faces. Since my father passed away and the Ghoulies started a civil war in Riverdale, more Serpents had left the town.  
"If you’d let that group in town do the concert, maybe we'd have more customers." Toni pointed out, talking about the young rock band on the other side of the town who were very insistent on playing at the bar on weekends.  
"No one else is going up on that stage." I said coldly, turning to face the place on the other side of the room. As if it had stopped in time, all of her things were still there, the same way she left two years ago. Sometimes I thought that place was cursed, like a ghost ship or something. It had given me everything and then taken it without pity.  
“By the way,” Toni continued. “There’s a package for you in the office.” She said, turning away from me and going to another customer.  
I took another sip of the drink and got up, walking to my father's old office. These days the place seemed more like a repository of memories than anything else. Twenty years later and all the legacy he had built was about to come to ruins. Not that I had done much to stop it, but the taste of defeat seemed bitter.  
The package Toni mentioned was on the coffee table, in front of the red leather sofa that I had spent most of my adolescence. I approached to notice that it was a vinyl record, the white cover with the words "YOU AND I" written in bold.  
I could have ignored or asked Toni to throw it away, but like the handsome masochist I was I opened it, playing disc in the record player I bought that summer I had met her.  
The song she had written was not unknown, it had played it many times in the bar’s jukebox, but the version she had sent me was a completely different one, with only her voice and a guitar background. It was almost a warning, a voicemail she had left for me.  
_“It's been a long time since I came around_  
_Been a long time but I'm back in town_  
_And this time I'm not leaving without you”_  
The last sentence sounded almost nostalgic, like a knife running through my chest for the second time. Sometimes I wish I had never met Betty Cooper, her melodious voice and the promise of a future that I dreamed of having one day.

**THREE YEARS AGO**

"Don’t you think it’s too much?" I asked, staring at the main stage of the bar, the staff we had hired brought all the equipment and lights needed for the concert of that singer from the north side of the city.  
“I love this girl, Jug! She's going to be a star one day.” My dad said, smiling admiringly at the bar. "Besides, don’t you think your old man deserves a nice retirement party?" He asked, hugging me sideways.  
"You do, dad.” I replied, smiling. "You'll be missed." I said, staring back at him.  
"You're going to do great things, Jug.” He said, proud to finally give me his legacy. I had doubts as to that. As much as these people were like family, I doubted that I could be a leader as loyal as my father. I spent most of my life trying to be completely different from him, his ideas and addictions were not what I imagined for my future, but when all I had left was the Southside Serpents, I accepted my destiny.  
That night, after speeches and toasts, she took the stage for the very first time and I finally understood why my dad called her a star. Her blond hair and green eyes glowed in the spotlight. She had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen, and when she began to sing I somehow believed in angels.  
Between the fifth and sixth song, her eyes met mine and she paused, her fingers still playing the notes on the keyboard, then she sang again as if she was singing only for me.  
“Who is this girl?” I asked myself. Fangs, who was standing beside me, laughed and lit a cigarette.  
“Seems like she’s going to be the death of you.”  
And she was.


	2. Chapter 1

**THREE YEARS AGO**

"Jughead is a peculiar name.” Betty said suddenly, sitting next to me in the bar, dropping her heeled boots on the table. "Your father told me that his son's name was Jughead." She explained.  
"My parents have a sarcastic sense of humor.” I replied, smiling at her and taking a sip of my water. She smiled back to me and then turned to Toni.  
"Is the bar still open? Can I have a gin tonic?" She asked, looking around the few people left, most of them cleaning the place.  
“Sure!” Toni replied, disappearing into the bar.  
"So, Betty Cooper, you seem to have a large audience.” I said, remembering how everyone seemed to love her singing earlier.  
“I try.” She said with a shrug. Toni came back with her drink. “Thanks.” Betty said, taking a sip and winking at Toni.  
“You're welcome. I’m heading home, okay?” Topaz said to me, taking off her apron.  
“See you tomorrow.” I said. Toni took her things, saying goodbye to me and Betty. The silence that hung between me and the blonde girl it wasn’t uncomfortable, I liked the way she smiled, sipping her drink with no hurry.  
"So, you're going to keep playing here?" I asked, reminding that Fangs had said earlier that my dad would like to hire her.  
"I guess so. I'm looking for a place to stay, to get my freedom." She explained, loosening her ponytail and sighing. For the first time I noticed the two tattoos she had on her forearm: a rose and an arrow.  
“Cheers to that!” I said, raising my water towards her. She laughed and lifted her drink, taking a sip right away.  
That night I helped her pack her equipment and offered the office for her to spend the night. I didn’t want to intrude in Betty’s life, but I had wondered why a girl like her had nowhere else to go.  
"My family is insane, they never accepted me singing. My manager is trying this agreement with a record company in New York, when my parents found out they kicked me out the house.” She replied, arranging the bedding I had brought from the trailer. At twenty one she still seemed a perfect girl from the north, despite the torn jeans and heeled boots.  
"You can stay here for as long as you want, Betty.” I said. To be honest, it didn’t look like my dad would let her go anyway. _"It's a long story, Jug."_ he had answered when I asked why he wanted so badly to help that north side girl. Anyway, she seemed to belong to that bar, with her boots, her glittery jackets and the guitar she carried on her back.  
"Thank you for everything, Jug.” She said, calling me by the nickname few used. I smiled at her and left the office, wishing her goodnight, even though it was past five in the morning.  
“You know.” Fangs said, finding me halfway out of the bar. "Maybe she's exactly what you need." He said, pulling on his jacket as soon as we got out in the cold of the night.  
“What?” I asked, looking for my motorcycle keys.  
"All those years, Jughead, and I have never seen you utter such a sincere smile.” He answered seriously, stopping in front of my motorcycle.  
"I don’t know what you're talking about." I answered, putting on my helmet.  
"I think you know exactly.” He replied, turning away and walking to his truck.

[...]

Sometimes I thought I had never really loved. My mother left when I was twelve and even then I never actually liked her. While my dad was getting drunk at some bar, she was on the other side of town screwing with every guy that wanted her. In the meantime I stayed home, taking care of my sister who was still just a baby.  
The day she packed her things, picked up Jellybean and decided to leave, I didn’t cry. In fact, it was almost a relief.  
She didn’t even gave me a good-bye hug or said she'd come back for me. She just got up and left.  
"I'm sorry, Jughead.” My father was the one who said it as she closed the door, walking to the kitchen to find another beer. I didn’t get it at the time, but now I knew why sometimes he wished she had taken me along.  
Today, ten years later, that blonde singer was asking me about my life, sitting on Wythe Wirm's red leather sofa, her legs crossed as she looked at some of the photos I had taken of her concert.  
"Tell me something that no one else knows." She asked.  
"At sixteen, I ran away from home.” I started, making her look at me in surprise. “I thought I was bound to end my days like my father. I packed my things in a backpack and walked down the highway to Greendale, slept on the street that day and when I woke up, I knew I had to go home. I think I gave up hope and accepted what was to come. I became an official member of the Serpents that same week.”  
“FP never knew you ran away?” Betty asked.  
"No. At that time I hated him so much we barely spoke. I think sometimes he noticed my revulsion look when he came home smelling alcohol and cigarettes. Two years later, when he almost died in a fight with a gang, he finally decided to be a good father and quit drinking. I don’t blame him, actually. Now I understand that life was not easy on him.” I answered sincerely, sitting down beside her. Betty gave her a sympathetic smile.  
"And you don’t think about getting out of here? Be great somewhere else?” She asked, running her fingers through my photographs. I smiled sideways. That girl knew little about Southside or what most of us were predestined to be. Betty was intelligent and far from alienated, but she had opportunities in the world that none of us would ever have, but somehow she didn’t seem to notice it.  
"We cannot always choose our destiny." I answered, getting closer to her. Her make-up was already blurred after the two-hour show. She looked tired but happy. With her ripped shorts, black boots, and denim jacked she almost deceived me that someday that girl might belong to a place like the White Wyrm.  
“And what is your destiny? That jacket and a title inherited from your father?” She asked, pointing to the Serpents jacket hanging from the office chair. I shrugged my shoulders.  
"What is _your_ fate, Betty Cooper?" I replied, staring into her eyes. In the dim light of that room her eyes were almost dark.  
“Maybe…” She said with a pause. “Same as yours.” She answered, taking me by surprise. I was silent for a while and finally decided to do what I wanted since she had first entered that bar.  
Her lips were soft and velvety and our kiss tasted like gin and cigarettes.

**TODAY**

I was coming back from a delivery with Sweet Pea when Toni called me from the bar, holding the phone in her hands.  
“Jughead! It's for you!” She said, handing me the old black phone with a worried look on her face.  
“Hello?” I asked, sitting down.  
_“Jug? It's Betty.”_ Her soft voice echoed. _"I ... I'm in town. I need your help."_ She added, her voice more distant and desperate this time, making my heart race.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, chapter 1 is here! Let me know what you're thinking about the story so far! :)
> 
> My tumblr: sprouseheart  
> My twitter: thesprouseheart
> 
> Love xx

**Author's Note:**

> This story is very close to my heart, I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do.  
> See you next chapter! 
> 
> My tumblr: sprouseheart.tumbr.com
> 
> Ps: a Falice fanfiction coming very soon!


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